The demand for trucks to move goods has exploded so you would think that Truck Drivers would be highly appreciated and well paid. NOT SO! Truck Drivers have increasingly been treated extremely badly by the industry for decades. They have made it harder and harder for a Truck Driver to make a decent living, while demanding more and more sacrifices from them, with ever-increasing obstacles for them to come and more demanding controls and surveillance imposed upon them. It is a very hard life.
All of the above-mentioned issues contribute to the driver shortage but are not the main force that is driving the Driver Shortage. The Industry is creating the Driver shortage deliberately. MONEY and Greed are the driving force. The industry has known for some time that Self Driven vehicles were soon to be a reality. THEY SAW DOLLAR SIGNS! They are planning to replace Semi Drivers with Autonomous Vehicles. They have created the shortage to justify this action. This is a global phenomenon. This is not specific to the United States. Don’t you find it quite odd that this is happening Worldwide just at the time the automated vehicles are coming to the stage??
Don’t take my word for it. Research this for yourself. I was going to include some videos that show this to be happening all over the world, but I ran out of space and time. I have posted videos that should give you a picture of what has been happening in the industry from the Truckers point of view and a couple of links and an article that should confirm for you that this is a GLOBAL issue.
Just be wise and aware that this manufactured Driver Shortage creates huge revenues all the way around for the handful of families that own everything. They can raise prices on all their goods and blame the driver shortage, while they prepare to switch from Drivers they have to pay, to Autonomous vehicles that neither eat or sleep and work for free. Not only that but what better way to control the masses and herd them into FEMA CAMPS, than to cut off their food supply and blame the Truckers? “Don’t panic, your loving Government will take care of you, just take this ID chip in your hand or forehead and come to FEMA, you will be fed.” SUCKERS!!!
Meanwhile, in a country where the population is swelling far beyond the business growth rate, where jobs are disappearing daily and companies that have been in business for over a hundred years are closing their doors, do you really believe that they can’t find people willing to drive a truck? PLEASE! Right now, people will do just about anything to put food on the table.
By the way, I don’t know if you have noticed. I HAVE! I live in a small town and over the last couple of years, they have been steadily decreasing the amount of food on the shelves/in stock at the grocery stores, including Walmart. Fewer brands, fewer number each of the brands they are stocking. Lately, they have maybe 5 or six each of an item… and that is it. Every time I mention this to people in the store they say that it is because it is not a delivery day… NO MATTER WHAT DAY IT IS. Even when they are stocking the shelves, it is not any better. Have you noticed? One day I walked into a local grocery store and ALL the Frozen food isles were EMPTY. They said the freezers were not working… ALL OF THEM? I have never seen that before. It was unnerving.
If or WHEN they cut off truck travel… there will be NO FOOD in a VERY short time. Most businesses (including hospitals, grocery stores, gas stations and banks) have turned to the use of a just-in-time, or an order as-needed inventory system, in order to cut down on waste and prevent loss. In a matter of hours, following a national emergency and/or a ban on truck traffic shelves will be empty and lives will be lost.
If you believe they are not going to fire the Truck Drivers, dream on. Once they have all the trucks fully autonomous, they are not going want to PAY a human who needs to stop to eat, shower, go home, go the restroom. WHY? If the truck is fully capable of handling the job without them. There are multiple companies that already have these trucks on the road. You can add Embark, Busch, and Freightliner to the list. Look them up. I am sure there are more. These are just the ones I have found on video.
Embark, Frigidaire and Ryder Open 650 Mile Automated Freight Route
Published on Nov 12, 2017
Would you like to see that in CHINESE?
TuSimple’s Self-driving Truck Made its Public Debut in China
Kristen Guo – Published on Feb 28, 2018
During November 6 to 7, 2017, China’s first AI-based SAE Level 4 self-driving truck developed by TuSimple debuted in the National Intelligent Connected Vehicle (Shanghai) Pilot Zone, well demonstrating how its autonomous driving technology onboard takes the wheel.
Volvo Trucks – The world’s first self-driving truck in an underground mine
Volvo Trucks
Published on Jun 19, 2017
Volvo Trucks – Introducing Vera, the future of autonomous transport
Did you note the dates of those videos? This is a global role out folks!
Daimler Mercedes Truck Highway Pilot Connect – Test Drive
These guys that are participating in the road testing of these vehicles are actually training the AI on how to handle the tough spots! These computers learn and ultimately surpass human capabilities. This is the end of Professional Human Truck Drivers. I have posted the following article link so you can learn more about how the vehicles learn.
Training Self Driving Cars using Reinforcement Learning
Waymo Self-driving Truck Spotted
Update 3/11/19 – Another aspect that needs to be heard.
We Do this to ourselves, Truck parking and Pollution
UPDATE: 3/10/19
Ride In One Of The World’s First Self Driving Trucks (HBO)
Uber’s Self-Driving Truck Makes Its First Delivery | WIRED
Driverless Trucks Are About to Eliminate Millions of Jobs
Self Driving Truck Delivers Load. Is This The Future of Trucking? – Warning this video contains a lot of bad language. But, it contains info I did not find anywhere else. I apologize. Don’t watch if bad language offends you.
The following timeline was created in 2015 – the estimated timeframes might be shorter today.
When Trucks Stop, America Stops (see the informative PDF for more details)
A Timeline Showing the Deterioration of Major Industries Following a Truck Stoppage
The first 24 hours:
Delivery of medical supplies to the affected area will cease.
• Hospitals will run out of basic supplies such as syringes and catheters
within hours. Radiopharmaceuticals will deteriorate and become
unusable.
• Service stations will begin to run out of fuel.
• Manufacturers using just-in-time manufacturing will develop component
shortages.
• U.S. mail and other package delivery will cease.
Within one day:
• Food shortages will begin to develop.
• Automobile fuel availability and delivery will dwindle, leading to skyrocketing prices and long lines at the gas pumps.
• Without manufacturing components and trucks for product delivery,
assembly lines will shut down, putting thousands out of work.
Within two to three days:
• Food shortages will escalate, especially in the face of hoarding and
consumer panic.
• Supplies of essentials—such as bottled water, powdered milk, and
canned meat—at major retailers will disappear.
• ATMs will run out of cash and banks will be unable to process
transactions.
• Service stations will completely run out of fuel for autos and trucks.
• Garbage will start piling up in urban and suburban areas.
• Container ships will sit idle in ports and rail transport will be disrupted,
eventually coming to a standstill.
Within a week:
• Automobile travel will cease due to the lack of fuel. Without autos and
busses, many people will not be able to get to work, shop for groceries,
or access medical care.
• Hospitals will begin to exhaust oxygen supplies.
Within two weeks:
• The nation’s clean water supply will begin to run dry.
Within four weeks:
• The nation will exhaust its clean water supply and water will be safe for
drinking only after boiling. As a result, gastrointestinal illnesses will
increase, further taxing an already weakened health care system.
This timeline presents only the primary effects of a freeze on truck travel. Secondary effects must be
considered as well, such as an inability to maintain telecommunications service, reduced law enforcement, increased crime, increased illness and injury, higher death rates, and likely civil unrest.
Truck Driver Shortage, NOT!
UPDATES ADDED 3/8/19 – multiple videos and commentary.
DON’T BELIEVE ME? JUST WATCH!
AGENDA 21 – UN Compliance is now MANDATORY for all nations. Most if not all Nations of the World have already signed on voluntarily. Enforcement is on its way. Get ready. Get familiar with what that entails. You will be overwhelmed. If the technology already exists, and in fact, the products are already on the road, you can believe it is here. Electric Semis, Driverless Semi Trucks exist and production is active to create huge fleets of them. Even driverless, electronic delivery trucks will be seen in your neighborhood very soon!
Woww! This is just too bizarre! The Name of the Truck was enough to catch my attention, but it gets so much better than that! Watch!
Thor (Old Norse: Þórr) is the Norse god of thunder, the sky, and agriculture. He is the son of Odin. Thor is another name for BAAL – God of Storms.
SO, this enterprise is both a salute and a middle finger to Elon Musk (Elon Musk Canadian American Business magnate, engineer, and investor. He Is the CEO and CTO of Space X, CEO and chief product architect of Tesla Motors and chairman of Solar City. Wikipedia.org) The company is based in HOLLYWOOD (witchcraft), they set out to solve “a lot of the problems the police have”. Their main concern is (UN) compliance issues cost of fuel, cost of energy, (cost of drivers?) [Semler told CNBC he was inspired to get into the truck industry after struggling to upgrade the fleets run by his own family business, Malibu Wines, in order to meet new air quality standards in the state of California. He said, “Buses and cars, passenger vehicles, are electrified. But there wasn’t an 
affordable or commercially viable option for us.” Source] It is a “TESLA Vehicle”, to arrive at THE END of 2019. [Thor Trucks plans to beat Tesla to market with its electric truck, the ET-One. The Los Angeles-based company aims to have its vehicles in production in 2019, according to co-founders Giordano Sordoni and Dakota Semler…Source] The warehouse where the Company is located has been in the Owner’s family for three generations. First as a depot for making and selling MILITARY GRADE Electronics, and then storage for his family’s WINE Vineyard. Dakota (current owner) ran the Wine business and started a wine tour “so the HOLLYWOOD ELITE could get drunk and hang out with giraffes”. In their warehouse, they have a “TURN OF THE CENTURY, FULLY ELECTRIC DELIVERY TRUCK (1918 Walker Electric Panel Van)
Don’t know if you caught this, but the name on their warehouse is Associated Industries. As shown on their display inside AI.
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I looked up THOR TRUCKS online. “We are a Los Angeles-based transportation lab making electric commercial vehicle fleets a reality.” I find it very amusing that it is called – ET.
Introducing Thor’s first fully electric delivery truck. Thor designed and powered, offering up to 200+ miles of range on a single charge. Due to surges in e-commerce orders, larger delivery trucks are in higher demand than ever before. Less expensive to operate, easier to maintain, and friendlier to our communities, Thor is ready to revolutionize last-mile delivery – are you?
Thor’s delivery vans can be configured for a variety of applications including parcel delivery, food & beverage transportation, textile & linen transportation, utility vans, tool trucks, and refrigerated transport, among others. Thor designed and powered, offering up to 200+ miles of range on a single charge.
UPS to field test Thor class 6 trucks in Los Angeles.
The Rise of AI – self-driving cars in the 1980s that drove on public roads!
Uber’s Self-Driving Trucks – See what Uber has to say about the end of Truck Drivers.
A career truck driver on why his is no longer ‘a middle-class job’
PBS NewsHour
End of 3/8 update
Watch this 18-wheeler truck drive itself on the highway – video added 3/7/19
Semi Autonomous Semi Trucks May Hit The Road Sooner Than You Think
A neighbor to the north has the same concern, and so do folks down under. Same goes for England, Japan, Germany, Brazil …
Driver shortage Worldwide part 4
Driver shortage is the fault of carrier pay/load rate per mile.
Truck Driver Shortage Rookie Driver Exposed
https://youtu.be/pEMUlRG_gJs
Truck Drivers NOT Wanted – Truck Driver Shortage & Average Truck Driver Pay
Truck Driver Shortage. It’s a myth and here is why.
https://youtu.be/pl-3v7slYQQ
TRUCKING COMPANIES – The Cause & The Cure For the Trucker Shortage
THERE IS NO TRUCK DRIVER SHORTAGE!!! STOP SAYING THERE IS!!!!
Why The Shortage Of Drivers In The Industry?
Truck Parking Shortage – Commercialize Rest Areas to Fund Truck Parking Shortage in all states
Money Drives the Trucking Industry
This video is not deleted. Click on the arrow to start the video or click the link above.
Using the Truck Driver for Free: Truck Driver VLOG #18
Diapers For LCV Truck Drivers: No Safe Parking to Go 10-100!
Regulations hindering truck driving industry
5 Dirty Trucking Company Tricks You Should Know About
Are autonomous trucks the solution to driver shortage?
The arrival of autonomous trucks is getting closer to reality. When they roll along our motorways and into our towns in 2040, will that spell the end of the driver shortage?
Autonomous trucks in 2030, 2040, later?
There is not much consensus as to when the self-driving, autonomous truck will be a regular feature on our roads. José Viegas, former secretary of the International Transport Forum believes that this will take place within the next decade (source: Irish Times) whereas the USA’s Center for Automotive Research predicts that self-driving vehicles will only reach just over half of new vehicle sales by 2040. Steven E. Shladover, head of the Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology R&D programme at the University of California, Berkeley says that we are decades away from driverless trucks, citing road safety as the key barrier to adoption. (source: Atelier.net)
Gradual adoption
Many industry experts expect to see drivers in the truck cab for at least another 10 years, if not more, as the technology will not be 100% automated and will require a driver on hand to intervene when necessary. The introduction of the new technology, partly encouraged by truck manufacturers introducing the new autonomous driving technology on a gradual basis, will enable current drivers to enjoy easier, safer and more efficient driving conditions, to retrain and move over to the new technology.
Autonomous trucks: the solution to driver shortage?
There is a perfect storm of factors that make this question so significant for fleet operators. There is a significant worldwide truck driver shortage; the demand for road freight deliveries continues to rise with the trend for consumers to buy online, and the cost of employing a truck driver constitutes a significant part of the total cost of ownership of a truck. Autonomous trucks can reduce labour costs; keep running 24/7 without being constrained by driver rest time and driving distance limitations, save fuel and potentially be more efficient than human-operated trucks.
There are many different scenarios being discussed in the media ranging from talk of no driver shortage as many truck drivers lose their jobs to automation; one in which there is an increase in the demand for truck drivers and, finally, a more moderate stance in which drivers remain but their roles change.
No shortages
Among those organisations that believe there will be a dramatic decline in the number of jobs for drivers are, for example, the International Transport Forum which thinks that 2 million American and European truckers could be directly displaced by 2030 and Goldman Sachs which predicts trucker job losses of 25,000 per month in the USA as self-driving trucks roll out.
Further driver shortages
Among the more optimistic views for drivers’ futures are those presented by Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group in its recent research which finds that there may be an increase in trucking jobs as self-driving vehicles become adopted on a widespread basis. The Uber ATG vision is one in which self-driving trucks carry loads long distances on motorways between what Uber call “transfer hubs” where drivers then take over to complete the last mile delivery in urban areas.
Uber believes that efficient use of self-driving trucks will drive down transport costs and increase demand for freight carrying, which in turn will lead to more human drivers on the road to deliver in local areas. This scenario might also help make truck driving conditions more attractive including enabling drivers to drive shorter distances, spend more time with their families and friends and maintain more sociable working hours.
Viewing this issue through a different lens, Christian Laprot, president of the International Road Transport Union says that “Autonomous vehicles will help the haulage sector deal with the current shortage of drivers in many parts of the world” (source: Financial Times)
Skeptical
Among the skeptics about forecasts for driver job losses is Joe Rajkovacz, director of governmental affairs and communications at the Western States Trucking Association who told The Atlantic“There are so many things a driver does. I just don’t believe that you’re ever going to see, at least in the world that’s imagined now, this fully autonomous truck without anyone in it.” However, he does see the benefits of technological advances to improve truckers’ working conditions.
A shift in driver roles
There is at least one area of certainty for truck drivers in relation to self-driving trucks and their future employment: their roles will change as new technology is introduced. In a recent article “Trucking and logistics will lead the autonomous vehicle revolution”Jerry Hirsch, editor of Trucks.comsays that we will witness two complementary transitions. “One will be that of a truck to an autonomous device. The second will see the traditional truck driver change to a load manager or freight conductor.”
Hirsch acknowledges driver shortages in the short term and thinks that “Automation can help plug the gap, creating yet another economic incentive for the industry to push self-driving technology that can increase productivity.”
Robot drivers?
Maybe when self-driving trucks appear on the road, a human-like robot will sit behind the wheel. The sight of an empty truck driver seats might be too frightening for the general public.
Flexible trailer capacity and trailers equipped with the latest technology – the keys to success
Whether or not semi-autonomous or autonomous trucks will solve the driver shortage issue, there will always be demand for transporters to carry large volumes of products in their trailers. Having flexible trailer capacity with trailers that are equipped with the latest trailer technology are the keys to playing a successful part in the transport industry. Ask TIP how you can benefit from our 60.000+ trailer fleet by contacting us via this form.